During the summer of 1991 archeologists from the Midwest Archeological
Center were requested by Yellowstone National Park to inventory areas
proposed for Housing Unit Design Assistance Team construction projects and
for the Fishing Bridge campground relocation, as well as the site of the
proposed Yellowstone Park Service Station project at Lake. All areas
inventoried are in currently developed areas, and the expectation of
finding intact cultural deposits was low. Two previously unrecorded sites
were documented during the inventory (48YE58 and 48YE59), and two
previously documented sites (48YE14 and 48YE744) were tested. Site 48YE59
was also tested.

Testing was conducted within the current Norris campground at 48YE14. This
large, possibly multicomponent site yielded many artifacts and evidence of
primary lithic reduction activities tentatively identified as part of the
Obsidian Cliff extractive complex. One Late Paleoindian lanceolate
projectile point was recovered from the surface. Additional dating of the
site was attempted using obsidian hydration, which indicated an age range
from 8100 to 2300 B.P. Twenty-one obsidian artifacts were geochemically
analyzed by Dr. Richard Hughes. The results indicate that all artifacts
but one were manufactured from Obsidian Cliff obsidian. The anomalous
artifact is the lanceolate projectile point, sourced to Teton Pass. The
site at the current Norris campground has been recommended as eligible for
nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, and plans to
mitigate damage from use of the existing campground should be developed.

Testing was also conducted at site 48YE59, the Old Faithful Dump. This large,
multicomponent, Euroamerican dump was discovered during excavation
(supervised by the Denver Service Center) of the emergency services
building prior to our inventory. The excavation was not halted when the
dump was discovered, even though Denver Service Center project supervisors
were aware the dump had been discovered and also that resident employees in
the area were collecting artifacts out of the exposed dump. Several days
passed before the appropriate officials were notified. This situation was
not only a violation of the Archeological Resource Protection Act and the
Antiquities Act, but it was also a potential safety hazard.

Testing at this site was confined to a one-meter-square unit. Artifacts
were collected and their stratigraphic associations were recorded in order
to assess the deposit. Discrete dumping episodes were documented in the
building trench, but it could not be discerned whether the deposits
represented primary or secondary dumping episodes. Datable artifacts,
mostly bottles, range from the early part of the twentieth century into the
1940s. Based upon the limited documentation, the site has been recommended
as potentially eligible for nomination to the National Register. The site
has the potential to address a number of anthropological research topics
dealing with the early tourist industry, including but not confined to: (1)
the availability of resources to the tourist industry; (2) the changing
availability of resources to the tourists; and(3) the history of refuse
disposal.

The third site to be tested was 48YE744, a multicomponent prehistoric and
Euroamerican site that has evidence of the Lake CCC camp and of dump
deposits that probably came from the Lake Hotel. Testing was conducted in
1990, when evidence of disturbed Euroamerican dumps and prehistoric
materials was identified. The 1991 fieldwork was oriented toward further
assessing the prehistoric component. No evidence of intact prehistoric
deposits was found, but three additional Euroamerican features were
recorded. These included two dump deposits that date to the early part of
this century and a dynamite bunker. Based on this new evidence the site
has been recommended as potentially eligible for nomination to the National
Register, since it can provide information on the development of early
tourism in Yellowstone.

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